A folding type mobile phone includes a first housing having a printed board module (for example, a stationary housing) and a second housing coupled to the first housing via a hinge and having a printed board module (for example, a movable housing). The movable housing can be opened and closed relative to the stationary housing held by a hand. A notebook type personal computer is also of substantially the same structure as described above; that is, includes a stationary housing, a movable housing and a hinge mechanism for coupling the both.
In the portable apparatus of such a structure, it is necessary to electrically connect the printed board module accommodated in the stationary housing with that accommodated in the movable housing. For this purpose, flexible flat cables have been widely used, which have a good follow-up ability, flexibility and durability against the opening/closing motions repeated by the hinge. While the flexible flat cable is connected at one end, for example, to the printed board module on the stationary housing side and at the other end to the printed board module on the movable housing side, the flexible flat cable is liable to be damaged by repeated stresses applied to a position thereof corresponding to the hinge portion due to the repetition of the opening/closing motion of the movable housing relative to the stationary housing.
To solve such a problem, there is one proposal for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 6-311216, in which the flexible flat cable used for a folding type mobile phone is curled in a portion corresponding to the hinge so that the displacement accompanied with the opening/closing motion of the movable housing relative to the stationary housing is absorbed thereby. Also, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-19896 discloses a portable type information processing device in which a root portion of a cable is rounded to be capable of being drawn in a predetermined direction. The flexible flat cable having such a curled portion is adapted to absorb a stress applied onto the flexible flat cable due to the opening/closing motion of the movable housing relative to the stationary housing into the curled portion so that the motion is stabilized. In this structure, however, there are problems in that a curvature of the curled portion becomes partially smaller during the repetition of the opening/closing motion, whereby the stress is concentrated to this part, or the curled portion may be in contact with other members due to the deformation thereof.
To solve such problems, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-163986 proposes a folding type mobile phone in which holders for holding a hinge pin are provided on opposite sides of one housing, and when the hinge pin of a hinge pin unit passes through both the hinge pin holders, the hinge pin is inserted into a loop section of a flexible printed circuit board. According to this structure, since the hinge pin is inserted into the loop, a curvature of the loop section is prevented from being smaller than a predetermined value due to this hinge pin.
As described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-163986, it is possible to inhibit the curvature of the loop section from being smaller than the predetermined value by inserting the hinge pin into the loop section. According to this structure, however, since the hinge pin is fixed to the hinge pin unit, a spontaneous motion of the curled section in the flexible flat cable is disturbed or part of the flexible flat cable is rubbed with the hinge pin and partially worn.